Photo of the Week. It's still not Comet ISON, but
Comet Bennett of 1979 with its streaming dust tail. See full resolution. University of Illinois
Prairie Observatory.
Astronomy news for the two weeks starting Friday, November 22,
2013.
The next Skylights will appear December 6, 2013. Happy
Thanksgiving to all.
The Moon begins our fortnight in its late waning gibbous phase, which ends at third quarter on Monday, November 25. It
then enters the waning
crescent phase, which diminishes to new Moon a week later on
Monday, December 2. Your last view of the ultrathin crescent will be in twilight the
morning of Sunday the 1st. The Moon then switches sides, first
appearing in western twilight as a waxing
crescent the evening of Wednesday the 4th.
The morning of Wednesday the 27th, look for the waning crescent to
the southwest of
Mars, then to the southeast of the planet the following
morning. The waning crescent next appears just above Virgo's Spica the morning of Friday the 29th
and then just below Saturn, between
the ringed planet and Mercury, the morning of Sunday the 1st. The
Moon will appear up and to the right of brilliant Venus the evening of Thursday the 5th, then higher up and to the
left of the planet the following night. Our companion passes apogee, where it
is farthest from Earth, on Friday the 22nd, then perigee (closest
to Earth) on Wednesday the 4th, the close alignment with new Moon
helping to bring larger tides to the
coasts.
Dominating early evening, reaching greatest brilliance on Friday
the 6th, Venus maintains a rather constant setting time of 7:30 PM,
more than an hour after the end of twilight. About the time Venus
sets in the southwest, Jupiter rises in the northeast in its usual position south
of Gemini's Castor and Pollux. Then around 1 AM, as Jupiter
is climbing the sky toward its meridian transit (about 3 AM), reddish
Mars rises. Speeding along to the east against the starry
background roughly south of Denebola, Mars passes from eastern
Leo to western Virgo on Thursday the 28th. As our period
begins,
Mercury and Saturn rise at dawn, the two passing each other on
Monday the 25th. Saturn, in Libra just northeast of Zubenelgenubi, thereafter rises in
a dark sky.
You might also be on the lookout for Comet ISON, which early in
the fortnight mixes it up with Saturn and Mercury, rising later as
it approaches the Sun on Thursday
the 28th. Watch for it back in the morning sky rising ever earlier
as December progresses, if in fact it can be seen at all.
As the month changes from November to December, Cassiopeia rides nearly overhead in
mid evening, with Andromeda
and Pegasus to the south, its
Great Square a bit west of
the meridian. The Summer constellations, epitomized by Cygnus (the Swan) are moving out,
while those of winter are moving in, Orion now crossing the meridian to the south shortly
before midnight.
